


you’re all i need, the very air i breathe.

by LLReid



Series: kamilah’s forever. [2]
Category: Bloodbound (Visual Novels)
Genre: Canon LGBTQ Character, Domestic Fluff, Dual POV, F/F, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Character of Color, LGBTQ Female Character, LGBTQ Themes, Parent-Child Relationship, Parenthood, Romantic Fluff, Same-Sex Marriage, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Vampires, request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-20 16:02:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30007401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LLReid/pseuds/LLReid
Summary: Inspired by; Ride Home by Ben & Ben.~~~~For a long moment, she just stood there watching them sleep. It really was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.There was no sign of the perfectly put together, cold, aloof woman she’d met all those years ago. Instead of an immaculately tailored suit, Kamilah was wearing plaid pyjama pants and a plain t-shirt the colour of weak, milky tea, and her hair was splayed out across the couch in an untamed riot, like it’d taken on a life of its own. Jax’s tiny left hand was rested on her chin, and the quiet snores emitting from her were just wonderful.She’d never been more exquisite.
Relationships: Kamilah Sayeed/Anastasia Sayeed, Kamilah Sayeed/Main Character (Bloodbound)
Series: kamilah’s forever. [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2108751
Comments: 17
Kudos: 22





	you’re all i need, the very air i breathe.

**Author's Note:**

> PROMPT: can I request a story where Annie has an emergency meeting in Raines corp and Kami has to take care of the baby twins?😂 you know like, baby vomit, diaper poo, toys and food fying because of their powers, synchronous crying babies, and Annie coming home seeing cute sleeping babies on top of snoring Kamilah

“Stop worrying,” Kamilah chuckled as she ushered Anastasia into the elevator.

It had been only three months since Annie had given birth and they were both still on maternity leave. Ahmanet was being overseen by her faithful COO and Raines Corp had — for the most part — been running smoothly with Adrian filling in during Anastasia’s absence. However, some bizarre scientific emergency that she couldn’t even begin to comprehend had erupted in one of the laboratories and it was apparently so far beyond Adrian’s capabilities to control that he’d called Anastasia in a panic and practically begged her to come in and solve the problem.

Which was fine. She had no doubts that her beloved would solve the problem if she could concentrate fully on it... but she’d never left the babies before. Neither of them had. So not only was it Anastasia’s first time leaving them, it was her first time being alone with them— and Anastasia couldn’t say with any certainty how long she’d be gone.

“I’m not worrying because I think you’re not capable or anything, I know you are,” Anastasia said quickly, a pout forming on her lips. “Its just... I’m really gonna miss you guys. We’ve been together every minute for the past few months, I won’t know what to do with myself without you all.”

She kissed her brow as she held the elevator door open with one hand. “We’ll miss you, too, my love... but we’ll be right here waiting when you get back.”

Anastasia nodded whilst smoothing down her blouse. “I pumped this morning, so there’s milk in the fridge— but hopefully I’ll be home before it’s time for their milk because I’ll have to either feed them or pump again in a few hours, and they seem to prefer it straight from the...”

“Source,” she snorted, her eyes darting down to her chest. “I can’t imagine why.”

Anastasia huffed in amusement and rolled her eyes. “You will need to feed them their blood, though. Remember what I was saying about my latest research, that it’s beneficial—“

“That it’s beneficial to expose them equally to the different blood groups because of something to do with different antigens benefitting their immune systems in different ways— today they’re having AB Negative,” she recited in short form. “I know, baby.”

Just because Anastasia wasn’t working in the office or her labs didn’t mean she wasn’t working at all. She’d started and finished numerous experiments and papers ‘for fun’, and she simply watched her in awe. It made her realise that difference between being a scientist and merely being a person of talent and clever ideas was the discipline it took to finish these bizarre projects. No matter what else they had going on, her wife did not simply talk about doing marvellous things. She did them. She finished them.

Their bloody dining room table had been swarmed with different papers, microscopes, beakers, test tubes, and god only knew what else for the past three months— she didn’t have the first idea about what the hell she did half the time, she just went along with it and cheered her on whilst making sure she drank adequate amounts of water.

Just the other night she’d been held hostage on the couch and forced to listen to a two hour breakdown of her latest research about the nutritional benefits of consuming different mortal blood types in vampire infants. She’d tried to use laymen’s terms, she’d really tried, but she’d been so overly excited that the vast majority of words that had come out of her mouth had been so bizarrely scientific sounding that she was certain she’d simply made them up. But she’d been so enthused about whatever the hell she’d discovered that she’d gotten all giggly and could hardly sit still whilst trying to explain it to her... and that more than made up for her inability to follow what she was saying with any real clarity at all.

She’d sat there smiling the whole time and had done her best to pretend like she was following her every train of thought. But, really, she still hadn’t the faintest idea about why they were now feeding the kids certain blood types on certain days. She just trusted that if her own personal genius said it was the best thing they could do for them, that meant it was.

Anastasia nodded. “Right. Call me if you need anything and send me pictures of them, and of you too because I’ll miss seeing your face just as much and—“

“Annie, you’re going across town to work for a few hours not going off to war in Europe for nine months,” she chuckled, silencing her with a kiss before letting go of the elevator door. “We’re fine, my love. Go.”

“I’ll pick up dinner on my way home— how do you feel about Chinese?”

“That sounds wonderful. Get those egg rolls that I enjoy.”

“I always do, babe.”

She stood and watched the door close before heaving a sigh. She’d done her best to appear cool, calm, and collected for Anastasia’s sake, as she had seen the way her face had fallen when Adrian had asked her to come in... but she was really just as nervous to be looking after two three month old infants by herself for the first time. 

They didn’t have a nanny or a baby nurse, as they’d both been pawned off to the help at every available opportunity as children and wanted to raise their children themselves, the way the vast majority of people did. And at this point they were a well oiled machine, a team in every sense of the word. They each took a baby and things were good, and they switched out every so often so they weren’t each bonding more with one child than the other— and Anastasia’s abilities could help when their hands were full.

She wasn’t sure how she’d manage by herself, with only one set of hands and no psychic abilities to help when things got hectic... but she didn’t have time to think too much about it, as a high pitched shrieking cry that she recognised immediately as Jax’s called her into the living room. The babies had been left on their brightly coloured playmats that their Uncle Adrian had bought them, where they loved whacking at the little stuffed animals that hung overhead and listening to the soft music that played when they hit them.

“I’m here. It’s fine. Mamas here,” she soothed as she scooped him into her arms and began rocking him back and forth. “What is it? Hmm? You’ve just had your diaper changed by mommy... but you’re always hungry. You’re probably hungry, so we’ll get you your blood in a moment once you’ve calmed down.”

She hummed the tune of an ancient lullaby she only half remembered from her own childhood as she gently bounced him in the crook of her arm, gazing down into the big blue eyes that he’d inherited from his mother. The fact that both children had her Annie’s eyes just melted her entirely... she knew she’d never be able to deny them anything.

As Jax began to settle, Zahra shrieked in delight from her mat on the floor as she beat the life out of one of the stuffed butterflies hanging over her head. The little hellion never held anything back as she whacked and kicked at the stuffed creatures, and she took that as an early sign she was going to be one hell of a fighter in hand-to-hand combat.

“Ow!,” she laughed as Jax grabbed ahold of her hair and drew a tiny fistful of it straight into his mouth. “Let’s not— Ow— Ow— My god, you’ve already got a grip that could snap a mortal’s finger clean off!”

For some odd reason he was fascinated by her hair. They didn’t know whether it was her shampoo and conditioner that he simply liked the smell of, or whether he liked the shade of brown it was, or was enraptured by the way it glistened in certain lights— but for whatever reason, drooling all over the ends of her hair was his favourite pastime.

Usually Anastasia would have to help pry his tiny fist from around her hair when her neck was bent at such an odd angle she could hardly move... and it turned out that getting him to release it by herself wasn’t nearly as easy. Vampire infants were much stronger and more durable than their mortal counterparts, so it wasn’t just a case of moving tiny fingers that had no real strength behind their grip. If she wanted her hair to remain on her head where it belonged she had to gently coax his hand open bit by bit... and he was already quite the stubborn little thing.

“I can see you find this amusing,” she muttered to Zahra, who was now alternating between watching them with rapt attention and glancing around the room, as if searching for Anastasia. By this point they had to have noticed that they were always together... so she couldn’t even begin to imagine what their daughter was thinking. “Mommy is undoubtedly going to have to massage my neck after this.”

Jax giggled and tugged on the strand of hair he was holding in response.

“Yes... you definitely get your stubbornness from her,” she chuckled. “Regardless of what she’ll tell you, all three of you are so stubborn you make me seem positively easygoing!”

A sigh of relief escaped the back of her throat as she drew Jax’s hand away from her hair and quickly tossed it all over her shoulder before bending down to kiss his mess of dark hair. Zahra began whimpering before the relief could truly sink in though, so she lay Jax back down on his mat and scooped her up to comfort her. 

“Mommy is at work,” she cooed, safe in the knowledge her hair wasn’t going to be chomped on— only Anastasia had to worry about her hair winding up covered in drool where Zahra was concerned. She pressed a kiss to her red hair and stroked her velvety cheek with the side of her finger. “She’ll be home soon and you can chew on her hair to your hearts delight.”

She and Anastasia had been trying to be as attentive as they could possibly be in the three months since they’d become parents. They’d read books on different methods of caring for infants but none had seemed to suit them entirely, so they’d been mixing different practices and simply taking each day as it came— learning as they went, as it were.

In many books they’d read, new mothers had been advised that once they'd fed, burped, and changed their babies they should leave them alone to self-soothe if they cried because all of their needs had been met. That was bullshit in her mind and Anastasia thankfully agreed. Her wife had given birth to two babies, not just two digestive systems that simply had to be filled every few hours. Their babies had brains that needed to learn trust and hearts that needed as much love as they could provide them with. So they did what they could to meet all of their needs, emotional, mental, and physical, and they responded to every cry because to Jax and Zahra crying was communication, not manipulation.

Their goal, after all, was that instead of raising children like themselves, who turned out okay despite their childhood, to raise children who turned out extraordinary because of their childhood.

Once she calmed Zahra, she was able to go and fill up two bottles with AB Negative blood that had been gradually warmed to a mortal’s body temperature. Normally they’d each take a baby and feed them at the same time... but since Jax seemed the hungrier of the two she decided to feed him first whilst watching Zahra beating the hell out of the little stuffed animals on her playmat. She was having so much fun that she didn’t even seem to notice that her brother was eating before her.

“Apparently your Uncle Lysi ate so much as an infant that your grandparents had to employ two wet nurses,” she murmured as Jax suckled on his bottle. “He used to scream and scream so much that they thought he was ill... but it turned out he was simply hungry all the time.” She paused, smiling softly as her eyes flickered between the babies. “I, on the other hand, simply required constant affection or I’d throw tantrums... not unlike you, Zahra.”

Zahra gurgled in response and let out another happy shriek, and she laughed softly.

“Yes, I agree with you,” she breathed, “I haven’t changed at all. Thank goodness your mommy doesn’t mind giving me all the cuddles that I desire and finds it comical when I pick her up at random moments. I was quite touch starved before meeting her... and now I have you two to cuddle with, too.”

Once upon a time, if she’d have witnessed a grown woman having a full blown conversation with infants who responded in a series of gurgles and oddly strung together sounds, she’d have labelled her insane. Yet here she was. Sat in her living room, having a full blown conversation with two infants... and the oddest part was that it did not seem weird.

She and Anastasia responded to each one of the noises their children made like they were offering the most mind blowing of observations... and the conversations they had with them were really quite ridiculous. Just that morning she’d heard Anastasia talking to them in Russian about how her daily Starbucks hadn’t been up to par and they’d actually sat there and stared at her like the sun shone out her ass, and had responded with their cute little noises every so often in what could’ve only been an attempt to keep the conversation going— and, really, she didn’t blame them for being so enraptured... Anastasia was far too amusing when she got so pissed off she started ranting in Russian.

Jax finished his bottle without any issues, as he always did, and she lay him back down on his playmat for some tummy time as soon as he was done. Besides chewing on her hair, his other favourite hobby was rolling around like a madman on the floor. From the moment he’d figured out to roll between his stomach and back, getting him to stay in one position was damn near impossible... and he began rolling back and forth the moment she lay him down.

“Why is it that you only ever vomit when I feed you?,” she sighed as Zahra spit up on her... again. “Mommy finds this quite hilarious... but I am not amused in the slightest.”

Zahra gurgled in response and gave her a toothless smile as she gently wiped at her face. Those big blue eyes twinkled and she couldn’t bring herself to be even a little bit pissed off.

“It is a good thing you’re so cute, Zahra Sayeed.” She kissed her forehead. “You’re like your mommy: you’re adorable and you damn well know it, don’t you?”

It had bothered her the first few times that Zahra had spit up all over her... because she really did seem to only ever do it with her like it was some sort of sick joke. Anastasia could feed her perfectly and she rarely spit everything back up. As could Adrian, Lily, and Serafine. Yet every time she came near her with a bottle of blood or breastmilk, she took it upon herself to ruin whatever outfit she was wearing. 

But she’d learned that parenting had nothing to do with perfection. Anastasia had pulled her aside and reminded her that perfection wasn’t even the goal, not for them, not for their children. Learning together to live well in an imperfect world, loving each other despite or even because of their imperfections, and growing as people while they grew their little vampires, those were the goals of the gentle sort of parenting they hoped to employ. 

So she no longer asked herself at the end of the day if she did everything right. She no longer dwelled on the things that she could’ve done better. She asked herself what she had learned and how well she had loved, then grew from her answer. That was their idea of perfect parenting.

“Lily Spencer, if you are calling me whilst I am trying to care for two infants by myself,” she said into her cellphone, that she was holding between her shoulder and her ear, as she changed Zahra’s diaper, “then you’d better have a damn good reason.”

“I’m watching The Little Mermaid and I have some serious questions. My girl and Adrian are busy, Serafine told me to smoke a joint and lose her number, so you’re it. You gotta answer my goddamn questions.”

She heaved a sigh, gagging slightly at the ungodly smell as Jax began screaming— a clear indication that she had another diaper to change. “Go on then... I think I could use a distraction.”

“Okay, the first one, do mermaids lay eggs or do they have a human pussy hidden somewhere on their tails?,” Lily asked in a tone of complete seriousness. 

“Excuse me?” She gagged again and actually had to look away from what she was doing. “Jesus, Zahra... how can one baby defecate this much?!”

Zahra giggled like she was having the time of her life, oblivious to her agony.

Lily snorted. “Having fun?”

“You have no idea what I am dealing with here, you fool,” she cringed. “This is actually making me nauseous— it’s alright, Jax, I’ll get to you in a moment.”

“Girl, do you need me to come over?,” laughed Lily. “Cause them babies are cute as fuck. I don’t mind wiping up shit if I can see my nephew and niece while I talk to you about mermaid pussies.”

“Thank you, but no. I have to do this on my own— and I’d prefer it if you didn’t tell Annie about the gagging,” she chuckled. “She’ll tease me about it for the next century.”

“I won’t snitch if you answer my question,” said Lily. “Do mermaids have a human pussy or do they have a hole that they lay eggs from? I need to know this shit.”

“Were you dropped on your head as an infant by any chance?”

“I rode my bike without a helmet and crashed into shit on the daily because I drank so much soda that I was always real hyperactive on sugar and it made me a bad cyclist,” Lily responded. “Not gonna lie, that probably did some damage.”

She hummed in agreement before gagging once again at the smell, and Lily burst into laughter.

“It’s not funny,” she huffed. “And mermaids are fish on the lower half, so I assume they lay eggs— there, does that answer your question?”

“Nah, that actually opens up a hundred more questions—“

“Goodbye, Lily.”

She hung up the phone and tossed it aside with a sigh, locking eyes with a whimpering Jax as she did. He closed his mouth, staring at her with hope and a series of small hiccups.

“Your Auntie Lily is an imbecile,” she declared. 

She really missed Anastasia. It was at moments like this one that the need for two sets of hands became strikingly apparent... and made her realise just how easy things normally were because they relied on each other. Whether it was emotional support or just the security that came from knowing the person she trusted most in the world was there and going through the exact same thing whilst dealing with a blown out diaper or cleaning up vomit, having Anastasia there just helped.

Her wife always knew what to say to make the less than glamorous moments easier. When most people chose to encourage them as new parents to 'treasure these moments because they don't last forever', Anastasia reminded her that they both needed to remember that they would survive these difficult moments because they would not last forever.

Caring for infants was hard, and the struggles could sometimes feel like they overshadow the joys. Knowing that struggling was normal and that it would pass helped her get through the hard times so she could truly treasure the good ones.

“Oh my god, your diaper is worse than your sister’s!,” she cringed, burying her face in her shoulder as she began changing Jax. “This is why my parents had servants deal with us. This is it exactly— my god, how is this even possible?!”

Jax gurgled in response.

“I can do this. I can do this. I’m Kamilah Sayeed. I’ve beheaded a countless number of fools. Danced barefoot in the blood of my enemies— I can handle a dirty diaper.” She took a deep, steadying breath... and gagged again. “This is my karma for all the terrible things I’ve done in my life— this diaper is it.”

She eventually mustered the courage to change the damn diaper.

Then she lay down on the floor and played with an army of bizarre looking baby toys.

She even did a whole damn photo shoot for Anastasia’s benefit... all whilst ignoring Lily’s frantic text messages about mermaids laying eggs.

Then, eventually, she lay down on the couch in her exhaustion with both babies laying sleepily on her chest. She hummed that ancient lullaby once again, remembering only a few of the lyrics a servant had once sung to her in her native tongue... but it was enough to lull both Jax and Zahra into sleep.

She struggled to keep her own eyes open as she lay there and observed them sleeping in a pensive silence, and a novel thought occurred to her. It slipped through her mind so subtly that it seemed to mingle like smoke with her other physical perceptions, with the way the dim light of the setting sun shone through the glass windows and caught in the crystals from the modern chandelier that hung overhead. The light fell across Jax and Zahra’s hair in little iridescent rainbows, and the scent of flowers from the garden and all the coffee she and Anastasia had been consuming lately lingered in the room. She wondered — absurdly — if this was the truest form of happiness that a person could experience — simply sitting in the stillness and being alive and sharing in the mundane with the people she loved most.

Something deep inside, something tiny she hadn’t even known was there before becoming a wife and a parent, seemed to unfold, to spread tentative petals open like a desert flower sensing rain. Anastasia, Zahra, and Jax... they were the reason she’d survived all she had. They were her light at the end of a long and dark tunnel, the things she’d always been living for with no idea that she was.

And despite the exhaustion. Despite the dirty diapers, the throwing up, the constant screaming... she’d never before felt such happiness.

**~~~~ Anastasia’s POV ~~~~**

The bag filled with Chinese food felt stupidly heavy in her hand as she leaned against the back wall of the elevator, so exhausted she was barely even able to support her own weight. After almost seven hours stuck in a crowded biochemistry lab, dealing with an experiment gone horribly wrong, all she wanted to do was curl up in Kamilah’s arms and sleep.

The traffic had been so bad that she’d taken the subway during rush hour and then walked all the way home, despite her exhaustion. But even inside she was still cold from the chilly evening mist that had settled down around her, sinking like midnight into the marrow of her aching bones. Her arms hurt, her headache was so bad it was literally pounding in her eyeballs and ears, and she felt so emotionally drained that her heart felt like a gaping wound in her chest.

“Honey, I’m so sorry that took so long,” she began the moment the door opened at the penthouse, “but these damn employees of mine—“

She was cut off by one of Kamilah’s adorable soft snores and stopped dead in the living room doorway at the sight of her sprawled out on the couch. Her hair was a mess. Her clothes were creased. And she’d clearly had quite an eventful afternoon.

But both of their babies were laying on her chest, sleeping just as soundly.

Naturally, the first thing she did was whip out her phone and snap a picture to use as her lockscreen.

She really was such a good mother.

For a long moment, she just stood there watching them sleep. It really was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. 

There was no sign of the perfectly put together, cold, aloof woman she’d met all those years ago. Instead of an immaculately tailored suit, Kamilah was wearing plaid pyjama pants and a plain t-shirt the colour of weak, milky tea, and her hair was splayed out across the couch in an untamed riot, like it’d taken on a life of its own. Jax’s tiny left hand was rested on her chin, and the quiet snores emitting from her were just wonderful.

She’d never been more exquisite.

“Oh thank god you’re home,” the ancient vampire groaned, stirring at the sound of the takeaway bag being sat on the coffee table. Her voice was rough with sleep but the look of utter relief on her face was priceless. 

She walked over to the side of the couch and bent down to kiss her on the forehead, then kissed Zahra and Jax. All three of them smiled at her and her heart rate practically doubled. She didn’t think there was any feeling she liked more than the one that her family was genuinely glad to see her.

“That bad, huh?”

“The diapers I had to deal with— I almost called Mathew to have him deal with it on my behalf.” She rubbed groggily at her eyes as the babies began to squirm. “They still need their milk. We did blood but we fell asleep before they could have their milk.”

“My boobs are literally about to explode,” she laughed, nudging her feet out of the way so she could sit whilst stripping the top half of her outfit. 

Kamilah laughed softly, her eyes lighting up as she threw her blouse and bra to the floor. “Yes, they do look obnoxiously large.”

“Keep it in your pants.”

“Listen,” Kamilah huffed, “I’m sharing them at the moment and they’re much too sensitive for me to worship the way I normally would. So I fully intend to have my fill by staring like a horny pervert as much as I am able.”

“That’s gay.”

“Yes. Indeed it is.” 

Her dark eyes twinkled in bemusement as she handed her the babies, one by one, and then gently guided her into her embrace. She hadn’t been surprised in the slightest how supportive Kamilah had been when it came to literally everything regarding the babies. Even with things she couldn’t do like breastfeeding them or using the breast pump, she was always right there at her side.

Kamilah lay her against the back of the couch and watched as she settled down comfortably with the babies skin to skin on her chest. They were secure in the crooks of her arms as Kamilah stroked at her hair with one hand and gently touched the sides of their faces with the other.

Her hand all but covered the side of her face as she stroked the hair at her temple in that soothing way she always did, bonding with her on the most elemental level. She yawned, and Jax made a happy little sound of delight, very much a cat in his love of touch.

“Tired?,” Kamilah asked, her brow furrowing as she studied her pale face and the bags beneath her eyes. “You don’t look well, Annie.”

“I’m alright. I just have a headache.” She sighed but quickly wound up yawning again. “How was everything while I was gone, besides the dirty diapers? Were you all okay?”

“Besides the fact we all missed you terribly, we were just fine.” Kamilah yawned against her shoulder. “They ate on schedule. Blew out their diapers on schedule. Zahra threw up on me. We played with those new sensory toys we bought for them— the stuffed dog that plays nursery rhymes when you squeeze it’s paw was a hit. Then we fell asleep— did everything at work go okay? Do you want to talk about it?”

“Despite needing to fire the people that messed up so badly that they could’ve blown up an entire city block and then needing to correct their mistakes one by one, everything went swimmingly—“

“You fired them?,” echoed Kamilah. She didn’t even bother to hide the fact she was both amused and impressed. “Were these interns or—“

“No, these were four grown ass adults who’ve somehow gone through grad school and emerged even dumber than they were when they went in.” She pouted. “They literally shouldn’t be allowed to set foot in a lab ever again.”

Kamilah stroked her hair to placate her. Thankfully she understood perfectly well that she was still extremely hormonal and would remain that way until she stopped breastfeeding— all she got from her was support when her emotions threatened to fly out of her control.

“Everything is going to be alright,” Kamilah murmured against her temple. “You’re home now. You’re with us. No mewling mortal will sour your mood again, lest they wish for their head be separated from their shoulders.”

A soft laugh escaped the back of her throat at that. “How do other people function without their own personal executioner?”

Kamilah snorted. “Believe me, I cannot even begin to fathom how the masses live without slaughtering their enemies by the dozen. It’s, in a word, madness. Utter madness.”

They shared a quiet laugh and then in the silence that roared in her ears Kamilah moved closer. She put her hands on her throat and lifted her chin and bent her head to her lips.

She kissed her in that way she always did. And she fell in love with her all over again, just like she always did. Helplessly; hopelessly— a consummate disaster. She felt it happen while her mouth came against hers and her fingers caressed into the tender muscles tightened by stress at the back of her neck. It was something physical, a tangible healing of an invisible wound, a curative rent in the fabric of her life, as if her whole pissed off self had been torn from her body and replaced by something else entirely. Something in a much brighter mood.

She answered the kiss slowly. She parted her lips beneath the pressure of hers and Kamilah’s fingers continued their vehement massaging of the knots on her neck; then they slid down and flattened against her bare shoulders, opening and closing like a cat's paw. A little aching sound came from her throat.

Her hold slackened for an instant. Only an instant, and before she could break away, they slid forward and locked together behind her nape. The warm rush of her breath touched her skin: uneven and quick as she kissed her eyes and forehead and the corners of her lips.

“Your knots have knots," Kamilah frowned. "Whoever stressed you out this much really is lucky to still have breath in their lungs—“

She was cut off by a loud shriek of joy from Zahra, which could only be her echoing her mother’s sentiments.

“Is that you agreeing with mama?,” she giggled.

“Indeed it is,” Kamilah beamed as she reached down to help her latch back onto her. “I’m taking that as a declaration of war on whichever mortal dared give our girl a headache. It is simply unacceptable behaviour— god, I cannot wait for the day the four of us bring our enemies to their knees together.”

“If either of them are even half as stabby as you, we’re in trouble.”

Kamilah snorted. “My money is on Jax being as logical and levelheaded as you— Zahra is going to be like me. Mark my words.”

She glanced down at their children and smiled. They were such happy babies and their personalities were already making themselves known, despite their age. Zahra was definitely the fussier of the two and she seemed to find everything absolutely hysterical, and her laughter was already a contagious thing. Nobody could make her laugh the way Kamilah could, though. No matter what she did, Zahra found it amusing... and it was the most adorable thing.

Jax, on the other hand, only ever really cried when he was hungry or needed his diaper changed. He hadn’t even been bothered by the phone ringing when Adrian had called and disrupted his sleep... he was just so mellow and smiley, and nothing seemed to make him happier than when she sang some old Kazakh lullabies to him. He’d lay there, swaddled in his crib, his entire body motionless except his eyelids, it seemed he understood everything going on around him already.

She turned and pressed a kiss to Kamilah’s warm cheek and when she leaned back, she saw her wife’s dark eyes were sparkling with happiness. The sort of happiness she would’ve once struggled to imagine that Kamilah would allow herself to feel. Sitting there, gazing into her eyes, it became embarrassingly apparent how inadequate language was in the face of such a profound sense of peace. There were simply no words that would do it justice.

“I love you, Kami,” she murmured.

Kamilah pressed her brow to hers, her eyes still shimmering in the warm lamplight and the lights of the city spilling through the windows. The flame burning within her was raw and deep, almost like she had incited it with the fire in herself. She could see Kamilah’s love for their little family written across her face, it was a blaze strong enough to burn down cities, to lay waste cathedrals and ancient castles — to make a world where it was only the two of them, and only their children, and this couch, and one singular beating heart that connected them.

“I love you, too, Annie,” Kamilah whispered, her voice low and soft. “So, so, so much.”

~ fin.


End file.
